Bankers Chanda Kochhar and Arundhati Bhattacharya have been ranked as top two in a list of most powerful women in Asia-Pacific prepared by the global magazine Fortune.
Kochhar, 53, who heads the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank, has been ranked at the top, up from the second position last year, the magazine said on its website.
It has credited Kochhar with reshaping banking in the country, and for building ICICI Bank into the “nation’s largest and most profitable private sector lender’’.
She is followed by Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, whose ranking has also moved up from the fourth spot where she was last year, the magazine added.
State-run oil marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation’s Chairman and Managing Director, Nishi Vasudeva, has also made it to the list at fifth rank, same as the previous, it said.
The country’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank’s Managing Director and chief executive, Shikha Sharma, came in at the ninth spot in the list.
Singapore-based chief executive of International Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Sheila Patel, has also made it to the list at the 23rd position.
The list includes key executives from over six countries in the region. With 11 names, Chinese women lead the list.